Texas Judge, Siding With Cheerleaders, Allows Bible Verses on Banners at School Games

KOUNTZE, Tex. — A judge on Thursday gave a group of cheerleaders here a temporary victory in their fight to display Bible verses on banners at public school football games, allowing them to continue to use the signs for the rest of the season.

The decision by the judge in state district court in Hardin County came the day after Gov. Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott came to the cheerleaders’ defense. They called the efforts by the Kountze school district to prohibit the banners “a great insult” that was out of step with a state law requiring districts to treat student expression of religious views in the same manner that secular views are treated.

The case has galvanized Christians in this small town in East Texas as well as around the state and the country. The cheerleaders painted Bible verses on run-through banners, the large paper signs the Kountze Lions tear through as they enter the field for a game. Last month, the district superintendent, Kevin Weldon, ordered a ban on such signs after consulting with lawyers. A group of cheerleaders and their parents sued the district in response.

At a hearing on Thursday, the judge, Steven Thomas, issued a temporary injunction against the district, prohibiting it from enforcing the ban on religious-themed banners, and set a trial date of June 24, 2013. Judge Thomas, who was appointed to the bench by Mr. Perry last year, did not rule on the merits of the case, though he suggested in his order granting the temporary injunction that the district’s policy was unlawful.

Lawyers for the school district said they would abide by the injunction, but left open the possibility of appealing the judge’s decision. “I haven’t ruled it out, but I don’t know that my client is desirous of an appeal,” said a lawyer for the district, Thomas P. Brandt.

Martin B. Cominsky, the director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Southwest office, called the judge’s decision misguided, saying that the banners represented a school-sponsored religious message. Lawyers for the cheerleaders, however, argued that the banners amounted to private speech, not government-sanctioned speech, and they were joined at the hearing by a lawyer from the attorney general’s office.

“Today’s decision is an important victory for the cheerleaders’ freedom of religion,” Mr. Abbott said in a statement. “The Constitution has never demanded that students check their religious beliefs at the schoolhouse door.”

After the judge announced his decision, a few of the cheerleaders seated in the courtroom broke out in smiles, and there was a smattering of applause by parents and others. “A huge weight has been lifted,” said Kieara Moffett, 16, a cheerleader.

A version of this article appears in print on October 19, 2012, on page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Texas Judge, Siding With Cheerleaders, Allows Bible Verses on Banners at School Games. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe